‘Individual freedom of choice’ within a ‘Vineyard of responsibility’ – it’s a balance, as they say! According to our readings, you can work it to your advantage, or you can empty yourself of your privilege, for the sake of the world.

Okay, so there’s a back story to all this in our readings today. The “chief priests and the elders of the people” don’t just come to Jesus questioning his “authority” in a vacuum! They’re reacting to Jesus out of the previous scene, where Jesus overturned the tables in the Temple and accused them of turning “his” house of prayer into a den of robbers. Who is in charge of the Temple? Where does the authority lie? The chief priests and elders were pretty sure it was not with this renegade itinerant preacher from Nazareth! They had been appointed the guardians, they were sure, with the authority to speak for the people of Israel.

Jesus answers their question about his authority as any rabbi would, with another question! “Did the baptism of John come from heaven or was it of human origin?” Checkmate – they didn’t see that one coming! Either way they answer, exposes their privilege, that they cling to. They did not believe in John, but they knew the people listening to Jesus teaching in the Temple did, regarding him as a prophet. A prophet who had boldly demanded they give up their privilege and prepare their hearts to receive the Messiah, Jesus. But the chief priests and the elders are more willing to endure public embarrassment than to “change their minds” and turn around – which is saying something in a culture based on receiving honor and avoiding shame. And so they endure the conclusion Jesus draws, “truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.” The more they cling to their status and office, the more their honor and privilege evaporate from their grasp! They are like the son who says “I will go and work in the vineyard today, but he did not go.”

Are we able to see our privilege? Are our hearts open to change? Is the kingdom of God what, and where, we thought it was? Some of us may not have ‘privilege’ but instead are put in the position of ‘fighting for our dignity.’ The issue isn’t entitlement, but believing we belong as workers in the same Vineyard with the privileged. But either way, we all must turn around and return to God.

“The word of the Lord came to me,” said Ezekiel: “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?”

The theme in Ezekiel is also about clinging to privilege, but by averting responsibility and blaming others. Ezekiel’s back story, is that, he’s living in Babylon with the first deportation of Jews, exiled from Israel, due to their disobedience, and failure to care “for the least of these,” some 6 C. before Jesus. Ezekiel was an “elder” of the people, but one who repented, turned around from his privilege, and advocated that all of Israel should do the same.

And so Ezekiel refuses to accept that the everyday proverb can be their excuse any longer, that they can have their “teeth set on edge” by the “sour grapes” their parents have eaten! In other words, he doesn’t accept that the children suffer, because of the misdeeds of their parents, any more than he would accept that they might benefit because of their parents success. Their righteousness depends on their own choices within the Vineyard of opportunity given by God’s grace. They are not locked in to the consequences of sin in the past. Even though they are in exile, away from their beloved Vineyard, the promised land of Israel, they are not destined for suffering forever. “Turn and live” says Ezekiel. God is a God of life, and we are free to take responsibility and choose it. You are not bound by the sins of the past, or your parents. Turn and live, is a word of Grace! The way out of exile, for them, and us, is turning around, repenting from the ways of death, and living in the way of life, the ways of the LORD. Why would you choose to blame your parents? Or insist you are bound to the sins of the past, when this only leads to more death!

But, we do! We blame others. Or we insist on the privilege we have received from our parents, instead of “seeing John’s righteousness.” “For John came to [us] in the way of righteousness and [we]did not believe him…” that there is a way out – the freedom to choose life – this life, this gift of grace. We have it not by our own deeds, any more than we have it by our parents’ sins. But we have life in proportion to our giving it away for others to have. Not to suggest it’s some kind of a Ponsy scheme, that depends on us finding one more person to hand it off to. God has given, and is continuing to give away, life, to us. It is limitless, whether we choose it or not. It is free, and it is the way of life that overcomes the way of death.

James Alison has said that, “There is no real freedom that does not pass through a recognition of complicity in death.” He referring, of course, to Jesus’ death and resurrection that helps us to see and to understand this journey. We do not just have to work a little harder at doing good to earn the gift. “Life is not something fought for,” Alison continues, “but something given.”

Are we able to see our privilege? Are our hearts open to change? Is the kingdom of God what, and where, we thought it was? The kingdom, or the Vineyard is not where John was – out in the desert. But John’s ministry of baptism in the wilderness is an excellent preparation to pass through on our journey to freedom. It is where our sin and separation from God is let go, and washed clean. We go through John’s baptism, to get to the promised Vineyard. We empty ourselves of the weight that holds us down, and we come up out of the waters ready to be filled with the new life of Christ. Our freedom is in turning around and choosing life.

Why in the world, Ezekiel wonders, do you want to be tied down to your parents’ sour grapes, their sins? Although there is momentary comfort in denying our privilege or escaping our responsibility, it only leaves us more separated from the reach of God’s loving embrace. We have been set free in the waters of baptism. Our exile ends in the freedom we have to choose life, and, in learning how to give it away again.

Welcome to the Vineyard! Even though we say, “I will not go and work in the vineyard today,” whether out of privilege, or out of rejections in our lives, we go! For here is work that frees the soul, and grapes that produce a harvest for the banqueting feast at the table of the LORD forever. Our exile is over! Choose life, and return to the Lord your God.

“The last will be first, and the first will be last.” Where you stand in line, can make a difference! This gospel is indeed, good news for some, while others grumble and get angry, and then probably exhibit denial, get depressed, and generally begin reeling through the Kubler-Ross stages of grief! “If membership has it’s benefits,” as the golfing slogan goes. Safe to say, Jesus wasn’t a member of that club!

We know how it works in the economy of the world. You only have to think back to grade school, waiting in line on the playground to be picked for whatever teams were being formed: baseball, kickball, soccer. Where were you in line? I was pretty horrible at baseball – a sure strike out every time! As I watched the captains pit us one against another, “choose” and strategize for a winning team, it was painful: I’ll take Aaron; then I want Robin. I tried to look confident, ready to jump into action, willing to be a team player. But, sure as the sun sets in the west, I was the 5:00 pick: Okay, come on, I guess I get you! Nothing is worse than being last in the economy of the world, feeling as if you have nothing to offer and are looking in from the outside.

But, how else can it be? If the world were to be run like the owner of the vineyard, and even the guy who works an hour gets the same paycheck as the ones who worked all day long, you can’t expect that anyone would show up early, ever again. If that’s how you’re going to run your company, everyone will sit around all day watching cable. If God’s gunna let everyone into the kingdom at the 11th hour, why bother!?!

My parents, like all my friends parents, taught us kids’ good work ethics to prepare us for the economy of the world. When we were young, we got a modest allowance for chores we did around the house, and we learned that for a certain amount of work, you get a certain amount of pay. Then, when we turned 16, now we could get a job permit and really rake it in! And like all my brothers and my sister, we worked summers’ for the Kirk Christmas Tree company, shearing all sizes of pine trees, one boring bushy green thing after another, in the “scorching heat,” “bearing the burden of the day.” And the only thing that made the blisters, the sweat and exhaustion worth while, was our paycheck at the end of the week. Waiting in line, from the first to the last, we were eager to receive the pay we had coming. And we knew that for every year you worked for Kirk, you got a raise. I remember I started at $1.65/hour. Then we’d each compare and make sure we were paid right, no matter how “envious” the last new-be’s were of the first long-timers.

Everyone knows you can’t run an economy the way the vineyard owner does. Ever since Sophomore Econ 101, we’ve known that paying everybody the same is no way to make a buck. This is bad business, fuzzy math and flat-out unfair. In the real world, time plus effort equals production, and production equals pay. Those who are in the most demand, with the highest skills, are righteous ones and receive the first and greatest reward.

This week, as the President was out stumping for his Jobs Program, the 2010 Census results were released: Poverty in America has hit an all time high. Over 46 million, one in six Americans, live below the poverty line, a line which hasn’t even tried to keep up with inflation: $22,300 for a family of four. That’s not enough for one to live on in Chicago! How many millions more then, aren’t even counted among the working poor? And so, in this economy, even those “standing around idle in the marketplace” is a false indicator. I’m guessing, the economy of God is looking a lot more productive to the growing number of “the last.” Maybe we’re getting ready for the economy of God to take root and bloom?

The remarkable thing about Jesus’ parable, I think, is that the owner of the vineyard continues to cruise the spot where the day laborers gather to look for more laborers throughout the day. We don’t know why those hired at “about 5:00” weren’t hired earlier. Perhaps they did not have the needed skill set. Maybe they couldn’t speak the language, lacked a proper education or were missing a green card. Maybe they couldn’t afford the increase in gas prices and had to walk, or stayed home in morning with a sick child. Whatever the reason, they were left out.

But what seems clear is that the owner of the vineyard is eager to hire, to include everyone who is willing to work, and to treat them equally. Normally no one goes out again after the usual day break hour to hire again like this one does. Normally the owner wouldn’t go out at all, but would send the manager. But this owner goes out multiple times, and finally again at 5:00, surprised that there are still more, asks, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” And what they say is heart breaking, “because no one has hired us!” But this particular owner welcomes them to “go into the vineyard!”

In the economy of God then, everyone gets a job. God is passionate about including everyone. Getting us together in the same vineyard, the same play ground, the same world, is precisely what Jesus came to do, even if it cost him his life. In the economy of God, the last line-up first and the first line-up last. But then, they are rewarded equally. Perhaps the more accurate tag line to this parable would be, “the last will be first, and the first will be …equal!”

Parables tell us something about what the kingdom and realm of God is like. Not fully revealing it, as it will be when heaven and earth are united. For now, we live in the tension, in between the economy of this world and God’s economy. Jesus taught that the realm of God was dawning, beginning to peek through, in his presence and ministry and teachings. And so we look for where and how that is true every day, including how God makes it manifest in and through us, and our lives.

“The last will be first, and the first will be… equal.” We’re still a long way from that in these days. But we rejoice that God is an eager employer, and never wearies from searching us out and inviting us to the vineyard’s banqueting table, where a rich harvest of wine is served, at the feast of the kingdom and realm of heaven, where the first and the last are all equally fed the meal of salvation.

“Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good.” Those words keep ringing in my ears on this 10th anniversary of 9/11. These are the words of Joseph to his brothers many years after they sold him into slavery in Egypt. What’s interesting is not just that there’s been a lot of water under the bridge in their relationship, though that can sometimes help when it comes to forgiveness. But it’s because we don’t know if Joseph has really forgiven his brothers? It almost seems like he’s looking for a gracious way to reconcile, without forgiving. What if he can’t forgive, even though he realizes this is an amazing opportunity for the family he still loves and misses after all these years of separation.

We can sympathize with Joseph, I think, because he struggles with forgiveness even as he loves his brothers, and they him. It is so painfully apparent in this moment after their father Jacob’s death. There sits this 100 lb. gorilla in the room, the shift in the balance of power, as the brothers who intended to do harm to their twitty youngest brother all those years ago, are now at his mercy. Their fate lies in the hands of Joseph, and they know what they deserve. They plead for their lives as best they know how. They tell him a plausible story! Whether it’s true or not, the bible doesn’t reveal: BTW, the brothers tell Joseph, dad said before he died, to tell you to forgive our intention to do you harm. So look, we’re falling down on our knees and begging for mercy, in the name of, they say, “the God of your father.” And Joseph is moved to tears, cries right there in front of them, and his brothers wept too!

After seeing the Twin Towers engulfed in flames over and over again this past week. What is the take-away? As we remember the nonsensical evil perpetrated on innocent victims on 9/11, what is our response? As we grieve on behalf of the victims, does that help us forgive, or make us angrier? Is it harder or easier, 10 years later?

“Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good,” says Joseph. And, does Joseph forgive?

There were a lot of pictures and stories in the news this past week, about 9/11. But there was one that made particular sense to me, more than others. The story of Rick Rescorla, a person, the reporter said, who made a decision between love and duty. Rick was a security guard for Morgan Stanley in the South Tower, who decided to defy the order to sit tight and wait, while the towers burned. As a Vietnam Vet, Rick had recently found love again in his life, having gone through a tough divorce after being in the service. He had found the love of his life in Susan, also divorced, and together they were like high school sweet hearts in their 50’s. They had plans for their life together and every thing was on track for a wonderful future right up until 9/11. Some say it was Rick’s training that kicked in when the Twin Towers were hit. Where other companies lost most of their people, Rick evacuated nearly all of his charge, some 2700 Morgan Stanley employees, only to perish himself, as he went back in to make a final check. Even though great harm was intended that day, Rick, out of duty and practice, intentionally turned it into an opportunity for good!

Though the sadness of 9/11 was palpable in those first days, many people used it as an opportunity for good. New Yorkers recall how everyone pulled together. And then that same spirit took hold and snowballed across the whole country, which in turn produced a mountain of good will overseas and around the world toward the United States. Countries that were our enemies flew the American flag in solidarity. Sympathetic leaders sent messages of sorrow and pledged to stand by us.

By 2003, that all started going south. The harm and evil that was intended for us, we in turn used it as an opportunity to lash out overseas, involving many innocent victims. The tears of reconciliation shed around the world, we ourselves turned into unnecessary retaliation, harming those who looked up to us. Forgiveness in the case of 9/11 is not easy, perhaps not even humanly possible. But as the world stood ready to bring the perpetrators to justice in Afghanistan with us, we squandered that opportunity by flexing our muscles, “seizing” Iraq “by the throat,” and initiated a war under false pretenses, acting on a grudge, in the words of Joseph’s brothers, just because we could.

Peter wonders aloud with Jesus, how often we must forgive another who sins against us? Even on a personal level, this is not an easy thing to do! He’s not just talking about forgiving someone else who asked us first. Nor is it quite the same as the reciprocity of the Lord’s prayer, asking God to “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” But he asking about being the one to reach out first and forgive. Doing that once is pretty good! Seven times seems very generous. “But I tell you,” says Jesus, you must do it “77 times.” In other words, pretty much without end!

Yet Jesus isn’t really talking about quantity. He’s talking about quality, which is why he proceeds to tell the parable of the unforgiving servant. Here too the quantities are wildly exaggerated. “10,000 talents” was about as high as you could count in the ancient world, more than the taxes of the entire empire in a years’ time. Or, something like 150,000 years of wages. Impossible to repay! Whereas the 100 denarii owed the servant is tiny in comparison, about 15 weeks pay. So the hyperbole of the parable speaks for itself. If the lord can forgive the 10,000 talents, certainly the servant can have patience and forgive 100 denarii of debt! It’s not really the quantity, as Jesus concludes. We should “forgive our brother or sister from our heart.”

The choice is ours, what kind of life to live. A life of forgiveness from the heart, or a life heartlessly centered on our-selves, and everything we can get at the expense of our neighbor.

Rick Rescorla, it is said, made a choice between love and duty, between the new love of his life, and his duty as a security guard. But as disciples of Jesus this is happily a false choice. Jesus choose both love and duty in going to the cross. In him the two become one thing. We can choose not to be thrown into prison, but to throw ourselves onto the path of Jesus’ faithfulness, that has already saved us. God tells us we are worth 10,000 talents, more than we can ever repay, more than anyone can pay for us – save Jesus. We are highly valued, and valuable, in the realm of God. That is the only reason we can forgive the debts of our brothers and sisters. One time, seven times… 77 times?! It is a choice, and a way of life, because it is who we are, as a baptized people. We know whose we are and so we know what to do. We don’t do it on our own, but together we thank Jesus for saving us already, before we asked for it, and we rejoice with the whole people of God, indeed with the whole world, and continue to practice it with one another.

We practice it, because forgiveness is hard. “Even though [Joseph’s brothers] intended to do harm to [him], God intended it for good…” The harm may still hurt. But God continues to create opportunities to turn evil into good, wherever possible. And so, as with Joseph, it often is not our place to judge our brothers or sisters on their intentions. And if it is not our place to judge, than perhaps it is not our place to forgive either – it is God’s. Joseph makes it plain that in God’s eyes, his brothers are forgiven. And that is enough, as it is enough for us to practice lives of faithfulness in proportion to what we have been given. If our lives are worth 10, 000 talents, how much easier is it to have mercy with our brothers and sisters!

The Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo da Vinci in the early 1500’s, has that certain artistic, unity-of-form, quality. She is perfect, though unfinished. You can’t quite pin her down, and her enigmatic smile has been widely interpreted! What is she thinking, what is she about to do, or say? Even Leonardo said he never got around to finishing her. After working for four years at the painting, he gave up, and it’s unclear if he came back to it. Later in his life, da Vinci regretted, in his own words, "never having completed a single work." Yet, the Mona Lisa speaks volumes to us centuries later: a masterpiece; unity-of-form-and-purpose; the most famous painting in the world, according to Wikipedia. She is five hundred years old now, but still as sought after and full of life as ever!

So, we can say that the painting is perfect as a work of art, but open-ended in narrative and meaning. She speaks to us, but her message takes on new news as time goes by. Her unity of form is undisputed, but how she became that way and what her finally resting place is, no one can say.

Could it be that that is what Jesus is talking about in our gospel today – that we are a unity of form that is never quite finished? A heavenly assembly of saints here on earth? Why is listening to one another, as Jesus mentions in passing, so important for forgiveness and conflict resolution? What is it that makes unity come alive in community?

Ekklesia, the Greek word we translate as church, means literally, the assembly, the assembly, in this case, of the faithful. And it is within this assembly of the faithful, according to Matthew, that listening, discerning, forgiving, reconciling, and modeling a life after Jesus, best begin to find their traction.

The method of forgiveness and reconciliation is more intimate than abstract. “If a brother or sister sins against you, go and point out the fault while the two of you are alone,” says Jesus. It’s not just the “alone” part that I’m thinking about, so much as, the “brother or sister” part. Whoever it is, the first step is to go to them personally. Triangulation, it would seem, was as much a problem in Jesus time as it is in our own! How often do we, through anger, or jealousy, or spite, go to another one of our friends to complain about the wrong we’ve been done? There’s a difference here, of course, between just talk amongst friends, and, a divisive kind of gossip that turns into harming the third party. In the gospel, Jesus is talking about how the unity of the realm of heaven can take root in our communities. About real forgiveness and reconciliation, and overcoming the sin of separation.

Okay, so maybe it turns out the, one-on-one thing in private, doesn’t work. You’re stuck in the same place after doing the right thing, initiating a conversation and trying to listen and hear each other out. Then what? “Take one or two others along with you,” Jesus says according to Matthew, “so every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” And if the “brother or sister refuses to listen to them, tell it to the ekklesia.” Now, you will have the wisdom of your faith community, the assembly of the believers, with you. “And if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

So, that’ll take care of it! Now, after going through the process, we can shun them, right? They don’t belong in the kingdom of heaven! Well, not so fast! Gentiles and tax collectors were actually included in the kingdom and realm of God, by Jesus’ teaching. When Jesus met the Syrophoenician, or Gentile woman, at first he reminded her that he was called only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and not to the foreign nations. But after his encounter, Jesus found that she had faith as great as anyone in Israel, and so healed her daughter without delay, as one deserving of God’s grace too. And, as for “tax-collectors,” that’s pretty much a no-brainer! St. Matthew, we know, whom the gospel is named after, was the disciple Jesus called when he was still a rejected tax-collector himself.

Even those who have sinned against us are not shunned from the assembly, the church, but are to be treated as “Jesus” treated Gentiles and tax-collectors. They are to be honored and given the chance to demonstrate their faith again; they are worthy of our love and concern, even in their tax-collecting, devious ways. So, through, the love of Jesus, which is best demonstrated by the assembly of believers in unity – they, like all of us in the church who are ‘recovering sinners,’ may learn to take responsibility for their actions, and live a new life in Christ. They are to be welcomed in the realm of God, and penultimately are welcome in the ekklesia, even when brokenness and sin remain so real.

Here is the amazing part about how Jesus describes handling “sin.” If, in going to “the brother or sister,” they listen to you,” says Jesus, “you have regained that one.” In each step of the process, Jesus is talking about a ‘discussion’ in which both parties, and eventually the whole ekklesia, speak and listen to one another; hear each other out, in a mutually safe environment. “If you are not listened to,” Jesus continues, then, you have to try again! First take one or two others. And if that discussion doesn’t produce reconciliation, then you have to involve the whole darn assembly in the process of listening to each other.

And so what Jesus is talking about, is a congregational discussion! A discussion in a community of trust, that reflects the realm of God – “on earth as it is in heaven”! The ekklesia is a unity-of-form that is alive, its narrative and meaning not quite finished, still changing, but continually informed by the living word of God, here in this penultimate assembly of the faithful. Like the Mona Lisa, the ekklesia is, a unity-of-form that is alive and speaks to us. Unity does not mean that we are clones of one another, thinking the same thoughts, agreeing on everything. But, we are Unity, a diverse, multi-colored, living and breathing whole that derives it’s oneness -from Christ.

And, on this Labor Day weekend, we celebrate and lift up all the diverse ministries and vocations among our ekklesia. We ask God’s blessing on all the gifts you offer in your lives: teachers who edify, janitors and cleaners who help us respect the environment we work in, nurses, physical and message therapists and doctors who heal, programmers who assist in our technological world, musicians and artists who bring beauty to light, students who learn and make our future brighter, lawyers and judges who bring justice and order to society, home-makers that care for families, bankers and investors who lend and provide mortgages, factory workers who help in production, and so many more.

In all our vocations and gifts we offer, we are called to learn the way forgiveness and reconciliation. Though not easily accomplished, they are a thing of beauty. Not a, Models of Project Runway beauty, but a Mona Lisa beauty, a unity-of-form-and-purpose beauty. Listening to one another in trustful discussions, we have unity, because ‘where two or three are gathered, or assembled in Christ’s name, Christ is present among us.’ Unity, which is our namesake, is a trust we have in Christ, and which is a living, breathing, on-going discussion of listening to one another -- that we continue faithfully.